Three mistakes?

[Zef]

1. Make sure you cross-reference your computer's O2% setting with your dive buddy's. I was diving nitrox with one of my daughters who was diving air and she had significantly less no-deco time for the profile we were diving...it took me glancing at her computer to realize we needed to head higher up in the water column.

2. New divers tend to be overly concerned about air consumption and have a tendency to focus more on their SPG with little regard for the depth gauge or other info on their computer. Air consumption tends to be the limiting factor at shallower depths but on deeper dives no-deco time becomes more the limiting factor...for a newer diver, who is conditioned to focus on their SPG, this can be disastrous and cause unplanned risk/decompression that they are not trained or equipped to deal with.

3. Don't be too enamored with your initial instructor no matter how great you think they are. Do follow on training with other instructors. There is a lot of opinion/bias in everything to do with diving, whether it be brand loyalty, BCD vs. BP/W, split vs. non split fins, Air integrated or not....with an SPG or not, even what and how techniques should be learned/performed. Vary your training experience to get broader perspective so that you do not fall victim to another person's subjective bias.

-Z

 

[admikar]

No.1- never trust your buddy!
No.2- check you packed everything before you come to a dive site.

No.1- OK, it wasn't really serious, besides it served as another training opportunity. Swimming pool, 6 feet deep, me in doubles,slinging pony. My "trusted" buddy goes over me and shuts down my right post. No big deal,I go for my necklaced secondary. My "trusted" buddy shuts down my left post. I go for a pony and flipped him a bird ( I did threatened him with my line cutter ). Did a valve drill and went on my way ( well, another three meters to the wall).
No.2- I went for a river dive and realized that I forgot my weight belt. Since it was just a few #, I spent that dive lugging a rock in my hands.

 

[abnfrog]

most deffinately EGOS can kill in recent past I can name 3 ....

 

[admikar]

I just realized I forgot third one........be careful what you buy on Fleebay........it took me three tries to get myself a decent set of 18650's. It cost me some supposedly great night dives.

 

[txgoose]

The aqua lung sure lock system ain't always a sure lock!

Quote of the day!! Trained on all aqua lung stuff. Really liked all of it with this one glaring, glaring exception. I am really trying to support my LDS, but I will NOT be buying an AL BCD. At least not one using (not so) sure lock.

 

[stuartv]

it took me three tries to get myself a decent set of 18650's. It cost me some supposedly great night dives.

If you had a charger/tester, instead of just a charger, you could prevent that (missing good dives) from happening. At least, prevent it from happening because of having bad batteries.

The Opus BT-C3400 and the Xtar Dragon are both great for testing batteries. I got some crap batteries from eBay. My Opus told me right away they were crap and I got a full refund from the seller. It may have taken me a little time to get good batteries, but at least I didn't have any dives effed up.

 

[admikar]

I do have Opus charger, and it did told me I got crap batteries and I did get full refund, but I missed those dives waiting for new set of batteries to arrive. Third set tested out at 3100mAh and 26650 for my newly bought Xtar D26 tested out at 5100mAh. So, I'm good to go now

 

[stuartv]

I do have Opus charger, and it did told me I got crap batteries and I did get full refund, but I missed those dives waiting for new set of batteries to arrive. Third set tested out at 3100mAh and 26650 for my newly bought Xtar D26 tested out at 5100mAh. So, I'm good to go now

Cool. My bad (assumption).

 

[admikar]

Cool. My bad (assumption).

Don't worry, be happy!

 

[Boaty McBoatface]

I'm still really green, so maybe I'm not qualified to comment, but maybe having a newbie perspective will be helpful.

(1) Slow down and be deliberate in doing a thorough predive checklist. If you are interrupted, start over from the beginning -- do not attempt to pick up where you left off. Do the predive checklist over again to reduce apprehension, as needed.

(2) Spread your weights around to reduce the impact of any one equipment malfunction -- if all your weight is on a belt, or even if you have it all in a pair of (failure prone) integrated weight pockets, losing (or intentionally dropping) weight from any one location could result in an uncontrolled ascent. This seems especially important when we're new because us newbies are still trying to work down the total amount of weight we carry, and we're more likely to induce an equipment malfunction.

(3) When you're new, try not to be the last one in the water. A bit of time floating before the dive gives you extra time to burp your wetsuit, reduce your stress level, and get comfortable, but if you're the last one in the water you add the stress of everyone waiting on you (which you'll probably still feel even if they're actually totally cool with it).